Drought mitigation
Topic: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in India · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Natural Hazards and Disasters: Causes, Consequences and Management"
Meaning
Drought mitigation means the steps taken to reduce the harm a drought does. Some steps are immediate:
- Supplying safe drinking water, medicines and fodder.
- Moving people and cattle to safer places.
Others are long-term:
- Finding and using aquifers (underground layers of rock that hold water).
- Linking rivers so water moves from wet areas to dry ones.
- Building reservoirs.
- Mapping water and crops by satellite.
- Growing drought-resistant crops.
- Rainwater harvesting (collecting and storing rain).
Beyond NCERT, India follows the Manual for Drought Management (2016, updated 2020). Long-term steps matter most, because they make a region less likely to suffer the next time rain fails.
Example
In the dry parts of western Rajasthan, people have long collected rainwater in underground tanks and village ponds. This old form of rainwater harvesting keeps drinking water available through dry months.
Related concepts
- Drought
- Meteorological drought
- Agricultural drought
- Hydrological drought
- Ecological drought
- Drought-prone areas of India
- Akal, trinkal, jalkal and trikal